Architects, engineers and general contractors dominate the headlines in the construction business.

But it's the subcontractors that do all the heavy lifting -- as a look at Meruelo Enterprises' group of companies demonstrates.

They include electrical contractors, layers of oil and gas pipelines, builders of railroads and mass transit lines and equipment, excavators and traffic signal installers -- all of which this year are expected to generate about $300 million in sales for Meruelo with a record $500 million projected for next year.

"We're still seeing a lot of work with public utilities and are starting to feel a rise in commercial (work), so we're optimistic," said newly named group president Shawn Rosenberger.

San Marcos High School is being rebuilt with Meruelo's Neal Electric as one of the subcontractors. Completion is expected in January.— - Meruelo Enterprises

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San Marcos High School is being rebuilt with Meruelo's Neal Electric as one of the subcontractors. Completion is expected in January.
/ - Meruelo Enterprises

Locally, Meruelo subsidiary Neal Electric is working on the rebuilding of San Marcos High School, where students occupy temporary classrooms.

"The whole campus was torn down and is being rebuilt at the same location," said Neal's president, Dan Zupp. "It was a logistical nightmare."

Another local subsidiary, Select Electric, handled the lighting and signage at Lindbergh Field's recently opened Terminal 2 West expansion.

And Tidwell Excavating is on tap to run conduits under the Mexican border to link Southern California Edison's solar array power generating system with transmission lines north of the border.

Rosenberger, 48, previously oversaw Turner Construction's San Diego and Arizona division, which was involved in both the airport expansion and San Diego's new Central Library, due to open Sept. 28. He said Meruelo will not branch out into general contracting.

"We're going to stick with specialty contracting," he said.

Meruelo Enterprises is part of the Meruelo Group, based in Downey and involved in many other businesses. They range from La Pizza Loca fast-food restaurants and Reno's biggest casino resort, the Grand Sierra Resort, to the KWHY Spanish-language TV station in Los Angeles and the Commercial Bank of California. Founder Alex Meruelo almost made news in 2011 when he nearly succeeded in becoming the first Hispanic owner of a major league basketball team. His parents were from Cuba. The deal to buy the Atlanta Hawks fell through at the last minute.

While San Diego contractors of late have been complaining about new rules requiring union-scale wages on municipal projects, Rosenberger said Meruelo Enterprises runs an all-union shop for one good reason.

"In the work we do, all of it -- electric, oil and gas work -- safety is just a huge concern," he said. "It's very specialized work, and the amount of training that's required is really only available with the union trades. They have all the training and expertise to do the work safely and efficiently. This is not simple work. If you make a mistake, somebody could really get hurt. In our niche market, we feel the union is an advantage to our efficiency and ability to deliver the work."

Three new groups of players figure into diversifying who does the work in the trenches:

Technology: Today's young hardhats grew up on video games and are at home in the field, where they can consult iPads that display computerized construction drawings. They have to understand GPS mapping and 3-D building information modeling. At the same time, they are expected to be able to swing a hammer and drive a backhoe -- and many aren't always at ease in handling real-world construction tools.

Women: Project managers and engineers are starting to include women for the first time and military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan is preparing them for construction work in civilian workforce. "A lot of jobs in the military are similar to jobs in construction, and as the military starts to shrink, there are a lot of women we'd really like to pitch our industry to," Rosenberger said.

Minorities: Asked about opportunities for minority-group employment, Zupp singled out Hispanic workers as particularly valued in highly specialized subcontracting work. "A lot of them have grown up to always be working hard," Zupp said. "Their dads were working on the weekends and evenings and they bring a work ethic along."

Although the general economy seems to be gaining momentum, it hasn't yet hit the construction business in a big way.

"We're really waiting for it to be really fast," Rosenberger said. "It seems slow; at least it's steady. We still see very competitive pricing. We're all waiting for when the market isn't so competitive."

Zupp said the normal bidding climate draws interest from three or four well qualified contractors. But today it isn't unusual to draw up to 10 bids and some contractors file the lowest bids because they offer to do the work at cost. Consequently, profits have dropped from a 20 percent margin to 8 percent or less.

"A lot of people would take jobs at cost to keep their people working and their companies open," Zupp said.

But next year looks promising, Rosenberger said, because many infrastructure projects can't be delayed any longer. For example, he said, utility companies are facing the replacement of 3 million electrical power poles throughout Southern California as they their 50-year life expectancy.

He said contractors do worry that federal budget sequestration and threatened cutbacks could put some projects on hold. But that would foolhardy on a long-range basis, he argued, since the longer fixes remain unaddressed, the more expensive it becomes.

"The road work and infrastructure work is so long overdue that we feel pretty comfortable that it may slow it down a little bit, but it has to get done, regardless," Rosenberger said.

Dan Zupp, president of Neal Electric, and Shawn Rosenberger, president of Meruelo Enterprises, which includes Neal and other construction subsidiaries, at San Marcos High School, where the company is helping rebuild the campus.
— Bill Wechter

Dan Zupp, president of Neal Electric, and Shawn Rosenberger, president of Meruelo Enterprises, which includes Neal and other construction subsidiaries, at San Marcos High School, where the company is helping rebuild the campus.
— Bill Wechter